Painting A Rainbow

This book is slow to develop but if you stick with it you will be rewarded with a great story about World War II and a family secret that needs to be told.

Every summer Holly, Ivy, and all the rest of the family meet up at their grandparents lake house in Otter Lake New Hampshire.  But every since Ivy was 8 she and Holly found a photograph stuck in a board between the wall and floor under their bed.  They took it to their grandmother, GiGi, to find out who it was and to their surprise GiGi put it away and when the girls asked about it their grandfather yelled at them for the only time in their lives they can remember him doing that.  But their Aunt Jenny took them and while drying their tears explain to them that it was a photo of their uncle Jesse who had died in the war, and is very hard for grandpa to talk about, since his days in World War I.

The girls drop it for the time being, but about 5 years later the spark is lite and now some of the other children also want to know more about their Uncle Jesse as well.  The girls are now 13 years old and back at Otter lake for the summer, Holly's parents are in California teaching for the early part of the summer and will meet her later.  Ivy's parent fight all the time and Ivy fears divorce especially when they talk of sending her and her brother away to boarding school.  In the mean time their grandfather has giving them a row boat to refinish and use for the summer, but the girls find out that the boat used to belong to Uncle Jesse and Ivy's dad, Jake, Jesse's twin.  The whole summer is like Uncle Jesse is giving the girls clues to understand themselves, each other, and to understanding his time period, his Japanese friend Kiyoshi, and what really happened to him. 

But can the girls put the clues together?  Can they get the answers to all their questions? Can Ivy save her family? For those answers you will need to read the book yourself.

I really liked this book but like I said it was slow to develop.  But if you give it the time required you will be rewarded with a great story.  It has action as well as learning to face your fears, and that can manifest in many different ways as you will find out if you give this book a chance.

THREE AND HALF STARS